The Amber of Lebanon: an Ecological Museum of Fossils

Professor Aftim Acra
Chairman, Department of Evironmental Health
Faculty of Health Sciences
American University of Beirut
Beirut, Lebanon
May 1986

1.1 Amber: General Considerations

Amber, a generic term derived from the Arabic name anber,
represents over 100 varieties of fossil resins or gums of plant
origin. In the Middle East, it is now frequently referred to as
kahruba, kahraman, or kareb from the Greek
electrum due to the negative electrical charge acquired by
friction, signifying its power to attract straw. This unspecific
property is known to be exhibited by a number of such other materials
as plastics.

The confusion in the Arab World of anbar with
ambergris (a greyish, odoriferous fatty substance used as a
fixative in perfumery, and produced as an intestinal secretion in the
sperm whale (Phyceter catodon) probably stems from the fact
that both materials have been found floating in tropical seas for many
centuries.

Amber fossil resins differ in chemical composition, and in physical
properties, depending upon the variety. Amber occurs in irregular
lumps of various shapes and sizes ranging from a few grams to the
largest one ever found in the Baltic region weighing 15.5
kilograms. The color, hardness, clarity and biological inclusions also
differ with the variety of amber.

Amber occurs in geological sedimentary deposits in various parts of
the world, specimens having been collected from the Baltic region, UK,
USA, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Rumania, Australia, New
Zealand, Philippines, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Sicily, Japan, China,
USSR, Spain, France, and few other countries. But the most important
source of amber has been for centuries along the southern shore of the
Baltic sea, where the material is generally buried at the bottom of
the sea in areas which were covered with extensive forests of conifer
trees millions of years ago. During stormy weather, the individual
pieces of amber are detached, tossed upwards to float on the surface,
eventually to become stranded on the shore or entangled in seaweeds
from where they can be recovered by amber collectors.

However, most of the European amber is at present mined in large
quantities from the ground deposits for commercial uses in such places
as Kaliningrad, USSR (the world's largest reserves) where it is found
embedded in the amber - bearing strata known as blue
earth.

The commercial products made of polished natural amber, or of
pressed amber (ambroid made from small fragments of amber)
include beads, rings, bracelets, pendants, necklaces, brooches and
worry beads- all of which are amber ornaments that have been produced
since ancient times, and found in tombs in Europe and in the
Orient. Worry beads made of polished natural amber or ambroid
are still very popular in the Arab world.

Although amber deposits are widely distributed in age, ranging from
Pleistocene (1 - 3.5 million years B.P) to Cretaceous (65 - 135
million years BP), no amber is known from the Permain (225 - 280
million years BP) and the Jurassic (195 - 225 million years BP), and
relatively little from the early Cretaceous (100 - 136 million years
BP). Canadian amber belongs to the Upper Cretaceous period (65 - 100
million years BP). In contrast, Baltic amber (which constitutes not
less than 99% of the bulk of amber already collected throughout the
world) is much more recent, mostly dating back to the Miocene (7 - 26
million years BP) and Oligocene (26 - 38 million years BP).

Biological materials such as insects, worms, seeds, leaves, twigs,
and pollen grains are not infrequently trapped in the freshly exuded,
sticky resin which is then transformed with time (million of years)
into hardened fossil resin by gradually losing the volatile
substances. These resins (or amber) may often remain burried under
the deposited layer of greyish sand. The fossilized biological
inclusions are consequently well preserved indefinitely, and could
serve as specimens for study by paleobotanists and
paleozoologists. These inclusions are considered to be much more
superior to those fossils embedded in rocks by virtue of their
intactness and detail. Besides, biological fossils contained in
transparent or translucent amber can usually be observed from various
angles.

Very little is known about the inclusions in the Early Cretaceous
amber other than those found in the limited number of amber pieces
found in Maryland, USA, which have been studied and documented. Most
of the studies in the past have been centered on Baltic amber which
was found to contain fossil insects and plant material. Recently,
interest has developed in the study of North American amber, both in
terms of the identification and classification of the biological
inclusions, as well as in the chemical nature and composition of the
fossil resin itself.

Knowledge of the chemistry of the fossil resin of Baltic amber, and
the nature of its biological inclusions, has led to the conclusion
that the parent, amber-producing trees are coniferous ones which
represent a number of genera such as Pinus (pines), Picea (spruces),
and Abies (firs). Amber from other sources have been associated with a
variety of prehistoric trees that produced resins. The botanical
affinities of these trees include Araucariaceae,
Taxodiaceae, Burseraceae, Leguminosae,
Dipterocarpaceae and Anacardiaceae.

With the exception of Hamamelidaceae, the resin-producing trees of
most of the amber appears to have been coniferous until the Cretaceous
period. Recently, these findings have generally been confirmed by
infra-red spectra and X-ray diffraction studies of fossil resins from
various sources, and these have also been compared with the patterns
obtained by modern gums and resins, including what is generally known
as kauri (1 to 2 million years of age).

The mechanism involved in fossil-resin production by the parent
trees are not completely understood, although several hypotheses have
been proposed.

1.2 The Amber of Lebanon

For many centuries people in the Middle East have been using
polished natural amber as a semi-precious gem for making worry beads,
amulets and various ornamental objects. Their dependence on imported
amber from Europe and elsewhere probably arises from the lack of
knowledge of the possible occurrence of amber deposits in some parts
of the region (Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel).

It was not until 1875 that the German Geologist, Dr D. Fras,
reported briefly on the presence of some kind of amber in a certain
location in South Lebanon. This variety of very brittle, wine-red
amber has been termed Schraufite by mineralogists. It is
usually devoid of insect and plant fossils and is, therefore, of
little interest for paleontological studies. Schraufite has
also been found in the Carpathean sandstone. However, the Lebanese
material was not collected since Fras' announcement, and so it
remained unstudied for about a century.

In 1953, J. Pactl reported that J. Petrbok of the National Museum
in Prague had found a relatively small piece of amber in Kurkar rocks
near Jaffa, Palestine, between 1926 and 1929. Pactl suggested the name
Jaffaite (a variety of Liptobiolite fossil resin), and dated it back
to the Pleistocene period (about one million years BP) but did not
report any biological inclusions.

In 1962, I accidentally discovered a single piece of amber in a
locality near Dahr-El-Baidar while leading a group of AUB professors
of geology and their students to a place in the Bekaa valley (central
Lebanon) in search of fish fossils reported by a friend of mine to
have been found there during the French Mandate of Lebanon. My
companion, Professor Young (a geologist) Identified that piece of
amber by burning its tip with his cigarettte lighter and smelling the
typical odour of amber. He then asked the students, who were searching
for mollusc petrified fossils, to search for other pieces like the one
I had just found. My friend Mr. Raif Milki accompanied the group on
that occasion. I felt so lucky when the students failed to find on that
site any other amber piece besides the petrified fossils they were
interested in. This stimulated me to continue searching for amber, and
I thought that the same locality in the Bekaa Valley would be a
logical place to start a more thorough search. I then recruited the
company and help of my friend Mr. Raif Milki and my son Fadi who was
then nine years old. A fortnight later I drove with my two companions
to the same locality where I had previously found the solitary piece
of amber. When I parked my car on the right-hand side of the road, Raif
stepped out of the car and yelled "Eureka, I found one piece". We then
started searching the plot of land on the right-hand side of the road,
not the one where I had found the solitary piece of amber.

By 1972, when I and my two companions discovered four locations
with fairly rich amber deposits in various parts of the country, about
30kg of amber had been collected by me and my son Fadi. The amber
collected by Raif was kept separately by him to take home. Several
other sites were later identified, but the outbreak of the civil
disturbances in Lebanon (1975 - 1991), and the lack of security
obliged us to discontinue our activities during that period.

By 1975, the Acra collection of amber amounted to about 100 kg . It
consisted of various kinds of amber ranging in weight from about 0.5
gm up to the largest one weighing 1653 gm. The usual colours are light
yellow, orange, brown, cream and red. A few of the specimens are
bone-white, resembling candle wax in texture and appearance. Some
specimens are transparent, while others are translucent or
opaque. Wheras a few varieties are relatively hard, the majority are
rather fragile. This is in contrast to the Baltic amber which is much
harder and can, therefore, be worked into ornamental objects. However,
the Lebanese material can be melted and pressed to produce
ambroid which, though inferior to amber and much less popular,
is hard enough to make it possible to work into ornamental objects
like amulets and worry beads. But, we decided not to encourage such a
practice at all. This attitude was based on the much greater
importance in view of the much greater importance of the scientific
value of the fossil inclusions, particulary because the Amber of
Lebanon is extremely rich in its content of very well preserved
fossils and its great geologic age which goes back to the era when the
flowering flowers began to evolve. Our findings thus far indicated
that the amber deposits in Lebanon, generally lying at elevations of
about 1000 meters, can potentially yield fairly large quantities of
material if properly mined by technologies developed in Poland,
Lithuania, and other countries bordering the eastern shores of the
Baltic region.

The Lebanese amber generally occurs in greyish sand strata, and is
often found to be partially embedded in chunks of fossil wood possibly
associated with the trees believed to have exuded the amber resins. On
the basis of the available geological evidence, both the amber and the
fossil wood are attributed to the Lower Cretacious (Aptian /
Neocomian) geological period, thus placing the age of the fossils at
100 - 130 million years B.P.

I and Fadi have incessantly continued to work on the numerous small
pieces of raw amber collected from the various sites by properly
coding, carefully washing to detach the soil, drying, weighing, and
packing each individual specimen in separate plastic boxes with a
label attached showing the date collected, the site, later the
prominent kind of fossil inclusion (plant or insect). The numerous
pieces of amber produced by accidentally shattering a large lump of
amber while excavating it from the ground were wrapped together with
aluminum foil and placed in a larger plastic box appropriately
labeled. The reason for such an action was based on the assumption that
all of the fossil inclusions contained in each single component
belonged to the same age, in contrast to the small pieces found
scattered here and there which might differ appreciably in age.
Subsequently, as time permitted, each piece of amber was carefully
inspected under a stereo-microscope, and those containing inclusions
were manually polished down to the level of the desired inclusions
with graded emery paper in preparation for photographing under the
microscope. The polishing operation had to be carried out with
continuous observation under the microscope for fear of obliterating
some of the fossil inclusions which are, with only a few exceptions,
extremely tiny, and the large majority being about one millimeter or
less in size. As there was no one around for us to consult about the
proper manner to process the amber specimens and to photograph the
fossil inclusions, we had to resort to patience, determination,
repeated trial and error, and innovation to ultimately achieve
success. The first encouraging photographic trials were
accomplished, with a limited input by a friend, in black and
white. Eventually, we succeeded in preparing colour slides by using
techniques we had developed independantly. Ultimately with time we
were able to produce about 3,000 colour slides. It should be noted
that the microscopic study had revealed the presence of thousands of
various kinds of fossil insects and plant material in a remarkably
well preserved state. Among the multitude of inclusions are flies,
beetles, spiders, moths, mites, larvae, worms, pollen , spores, ova,
uni-cellular organisms, twigs, leaves, rootlets, mushrooms, a single
tiny snail, tiny specks of metal, and liquid bubbles, in addition to
various other objects that are not readily identifiable.

It would be useful and interesting to record the actual materials
and techniques used throughout the entire process from polishing each
piece of amber to photographing each outstanding fossil
inclusion. Such a venture is beyond the scope of this report because
of the bulk of information.

An extremely interesting finding refers to the variety of
unicellular microorganisms present in a number of amber
specimens. These cells vary in shape and size, and many of them are
distinctly nucleated. Their colour generally varies from light brown
to orange or pink.

Some amber specimens are extremely rich in insects and/or plant
materials, while others are completely devoid of biological
inclusions. The presence of insect attractants or repellents in the
various kinds of amber may offer one possible explanation for the
presence in abundance or complete absence of insect fossils. The fossil
pollen grains can yield information of great value with reference to
the kinds of flowering plants that started to evolve during that
period of time.

1.3 Our work: an overview

The work I and Fadi had accomplished from the start of the project
in 1962 with respect to the specimens of amber collected from the
various amber sites in Lebanon is briefly described hereunder for the
purpose of recognizing the procedures that need to be applied in
future projects.

It must be realized at the outset that the work involving
collection, preliminary preparation of the specimens, inspection and
microscopical scanning of each one, manual polishing of individual
specimens, and micro-photographic operations are time consuming and
extremely tedious tasks, particularly in view of the tens of thousands
of amber pieces involved. The same can also be said about the study
and description of the individual fossil inclusions by highly
experienced specialists and taxonomists. It should be appreciated that
the experts with some experience in the study and identification of
amber fossils are rather scarce throughout the world. We were indeed
lucky to be able to establish contact with Dr. Paul Whalley of the
Department of Entomology at the British Museum (Natural History) in
London who showed interest in studying part of our collection of
amber, and I was only too happy to make arrangements to send him about
1000 pieces of amber during 1975-1976. Some of the members of the
British team of news reporters, who came to Beirut to cover the
disturbances that flared up in Lebanon in April 1975, volunteered to
hand-carry the amber I had carefully packed in small wooden boxes.

1.3 1 The progress of our work

For a little more than a decade (1962 - 1975) our search for
sites of amber deposits continued with some success and a lot of
failures. Some ten different locations have been identified so far,
but the quantity and kind of amber available in each place vary
considerably, for some locations have an abundance of amber burried in
the strata of sediments, and occasionally embedded in rock
formations. Occasionally we would find some pieces of amber associated
with chunks of fossil wood. During the dry season it becomes quite
difficult to extract the amber specimens from the hardened, dry
soil. Experience has shown that it is much more feasible to collect
the amber during the rainy season when the soil is wet and soft, a
practice we and Raif adopted as a general rule.

Mrs. Kirkwood, wife of Dr. Samuel Kirkwood, President of the
American University of Beirut, would occasionally ask to join our
group on a given amber trip which invariably started very early in the
morning. The President would walk her to the door of Marquand House
where they lived within the AUB Campus and tell her as she walked
towards us : " Sunny, I think you are crazy !! " That would not help
to change her mind. At the site, she normally had some difficulty
getting down to the ravine where the amber is found. She would
sometimes call Fadi to help her get on her feet whenever she stumbles
while looking for exposed pieces of amber. At the end of the very
enjoyable and rewarding expedition Fadi would, out of courtesy, give
her some nice pieces of the amber he had collected.

It is certain that there are many more potential amber sites that
need to be discovered throughout the country through extensive search
and field surveys. Pertinent geological information to be provided by
geologists familiar with the local conditions would greatly facilitate
the identification of these potential sites. Such surveys may become
necessary if it is desired to collect samples of amber from as many
localities as possible in order to determine the environmental
conditions prevailing during the early Cretaceous period, to form an
idea about the geographic distribution of the fauna and the flora
existing at the time in various parts of the country.

The number of pieces of our amber that have been treated in
preparation for microphotography is in the order of several
thousands. Each of these contain at least one important fossil
inclusion. In some specimens the interesting fossil inclusions are
numerous. Not uncommonly, a piece of amber the size of a wheat grain
may contain several inclusions, but such specimens are extremely
difficult to polish manually under the microscope.

At the beginning of the 1970's, the first attempts at photographing
the microscopic inclusions were promising, but not successful. This
was on account of the lack of appropriate equipment - a suitable
microscope with a camera attachment.

By 1974, once a limited fund was made available, unsophisticated
equipment were purchased, and the results were spectacular. In 1976,
at the time when the disturbances reached their climax, about 350
colored slides were prepared. The films had to be sent to the British
Museum (Natural History) for development through the courtesy of
Dr. Paul Whalley as it was not possible to do so in Beirut at the
time.

While the work on the amber never actually ceased, except for short
spells of time, photographing the microfossils was resumed in January
1980 in a systematic manner, and on a more intensive basis. This was
possible for three prime reasons:

The work, which was until then carried out by me and Fadi at home
during our spare time, was transferred to the Department of
Environmental Health at AUB, thereby transforming an activity which
was initiated as a mere hobby into a project of great scientific
importance.

The change in our attitude and function was prompted and
encouraged by the parallel work undertaken simultaneously and
independently by Dr. Whalley in London, and by Dr. Schlee in West
Germany on the Amber of Lebanon, which came to be known in scientific
circles as the oldest amber with fossil inclusions ever found.

The work involving the pretreatment of the amber specimens and
the production of coloured slides and prints for many of the
inclusions were so successful that it was imperative to continue our
work with the ultimate aim of producing a book with colored
illustrations on the Amber of Lebanon and its fossil inclusions. This
rather attractive idea was soon abandoned because of the costs
involved and the lack of funds for such a purpose.

1.3 2 The Work by Dr. Paul Whalley

Negotiations with the British Museum (Natural History) led to an
agreement to have a group of experts headed by Dr. P. Whalley to carry
out a study of some of the insect fossils contained in the Amber of
Lebanon. The preliminary inspection of a few trial specimens convinced
Dr. Whalley to undertake the task of selecting as many pieces of amber
that he and his collaborators are capable of studying the kinds of
insects of interest to each one of them. Accordingly, in 1973 a
substantial batch of amber pieces were hand-carried to London as
previously mentioned, and soon thereafter the scientific study of the
Acra collection of the Amber of Lebanon commenced at the British
Museum (Natural History) in London

Actually, several batches of amber were hand-carried and delivered
to Dr. Whalley in London. This was partly prompted by the need to
safeguard as much of the best part of our amber collection as possible
from the ravages of the on-going civil war. In this way, more that
1000 amber specimens were transferred to the British Museum (Natural
History), where the study continued until February 1980. They were
then brought back to Beirut by my colleague, Miss Zeina Raffoul, for
the purpose of photographing the inclusions by me at AUB. It is
important to note that all of the specimens sent to Dr. Whalley were
collected from only one location in southern Lebanon. Therefore, they
are not necessarily representative of the specimens in the other amber
sites known to us at the time. The preliminary studies undertaken by
Dr. Whalley indicate that among the amber specimens available at the
British Museum there are 561 complete fossil insects, apart from the
many more fragments of insects (e.g. heads, wings, and appendages)
that are often recognizable. For further details reference should be
made to the preliminary report by Dr. Whalley (see Appendix).

Certain fossil insects present in our amber collection were
selected and studied by Dr. Whalley and others with the aim of
identifying and classifying them. Dr Whalley, for instance, selected
and described the characteristic features of certain fossil moths that
led to their classification and nomenclature. He then published his
findings in three papers. In recognition of the important contribution
of the Acra's, Dr. Whalley named three of the six moths studied by him
as indicated below:

Parasabatinca aftimacrai

Glaesoconis fadiacra

Paraberotha acra

1.3 3 The work by certain German Scientists

Guided by the observations recorded by Russegger (1836) and by Fras
(1875) regarding the presence of a certain kind of amber in the
southern Lebanon, an expedition was organized by some German scientists
under the leadership of Dr. Schlee for the purpose of collecting amber
from the location mentioned by Russeger And Fras. This expedition took
place in the winter of 1968-69, and was limited to one locality near
Jezzin. The site from where this group of scientists collected amber
is only one of the many where our team managed to find since
1962.

Several papers and monographs have been published to-date as a
result of the studies carried out at the Stuttgard Museum by
Dr. Schlee and his associates. In fact a chapter was devoted to the
Amber of Lebanon in a book recently published by Von Dieter
Schlee.

1.3 4 Amber in Israel

A. Nissenbaum reported in 1975 that some amber specimens were
recently collected from four localities in Israel, two of these
localities being very close to the southern border of Lebanon. The
specimens are believed to date back to the Lower Cretacious period,
and are therefore of the same age as those found in the southern parts
of Lebanon.

Nissenbaum believes that the deposits of amber, existing in Israel
form part of a continuous belt of amber deposits of the Lower
Cretacious period that extends over a distance of several hundred
kilometers from Lebanon to Israel. This belt is supposed to be almost
as extensive as that of the Baltic amber.

Well preserved fossil fungi have been reported in amber specimens
collected from southern Israel but the study of other inclusions was
underway.

1.3 5 Amber in Jordan

Abbas Haddadin Abdallah, a school teacher from Jordan, wrote to me
in 1974 indicating that he was stimulated by my recent reports in the
media on the existence, collection, and study of the Amber of
Lebanon. He, therefore, wished to have more information about this
amber and its characteristics to guide him in his search for amber in
Jordan during his spare-time job of surveying plots of land.

In response to this request, I sent him a letter in which I
provided him with the needed information, particularly about the
method of collection, washing, coding, polishing, microscopic
scanning, and photography of the inclusions. The samples of
transparent light brown amber subsequently collected by him in the
vicinity of ancient town of Jarash, and which he mailed to me for
inspection and comments, were found to be devoid of any identifiable
biological inclusions. However, I replied that the specimens were
indeed amber, though devoid of biological inclusions, and that I
adamantly encourage him to continue his search in various
localities.

Communications between me and Abbas were interrupted because of the
disturbances in Lebanon, and resumed again in 1980 by me after having
recieved a paper published (May 1979) jointly by K. Bandel ,a German
paleontologist serving as a professor at the University of Jordan in
Amman, and A. Haddadin Abdallah entitled "The Depositional Environment
of Amber-Bearing Rocks in Jordan". I wrote to Abbas to congratulate him
heartily for his achievement.

In this report, the authors announced the discovery of amber of the
Lower Cretaceous period in 1977, thus placing it at the same age as
that of the Amber of Lebanon. Several amber-bearing sites were
identified and studied in this Zarqa River basin between the King
Talal Dam and Jarash.

The colour of the Amber of Jordan is usually red-brown, with shades
ranging from brown-honey colors to almost colorless yellow. Some of
the specimens are clear and transparent as glass, and others are
opaque. Most of the amber specimens found are quite brittle, except
for a few that are of semi-gem quality.

Fossil plant remains were also found in the amber-bearing sediments
and rocks. These include fern leaves (Weichselia reticulata),
as well as fossil wood, roots and leaves believed to be those of a
gymnosperm conifer tree of the Araucariacea family related to
the large pine trees of the genus Agathis still existing in the
Southern Hemisphere. The kauri copal or kauri gum is
obtained from the kauri pine Agathis australis, which is New
Zeland's largest and most important kind of tree. Copal is a subfossil
gum found in the ground in areas forested with Agathis pine trees in
prehistoric times, and resembles fossil amber in many respects.

Based on their findings and those of others, K. Bandel and
A. Haddadin Abdallah have postulated a picture depicting the
environmental conditions existing in the area where the Amber of
Jordan was produced by the large forest trees during the Lower
Cretaceous period (120-135 million years B.P.).

During the Lower Cretaceous period Jordan belonged to the realm of
the Southern Hemisphere as part of the Arabian-African continent. It
was separated from the Northern Hemisphere by the barrier of the
Tethys Sea. This explains the great differences in climate, as well as
in the fossil flora and fauna found in Jordan compared to those of
similar age found in Europe and North-America.

At the beginning of the Lower Cretaceous period, Jordan was
bordering the ancient sea which lay to the west. A river system
originating from the Arabian-African Continent flowed through Jordan
from the south and east towards the sea. The Jarash area, where amber
was recently found, formed part of the coastal region.

The coastal region was penetrated by streams that brought what is
now termed as the Kurnub Group of sediments that were deposited on the
banks of the streams flowing towards the coast. The coastal region
consisted of deltas and estuaries, and must have been studded with
muddy swamps and shallow lagoons of fresh or somewhat saline water
separated from the sea by sandy shoals.

A vegetation composed of ferns, cycadophytes and conifers covered
the riverbanks, the coastal lowlands, and the swamp areas. The ancient
conifer tree (family Araucariacea) with some affinity to the modern
Agathis conifer represented the principal tree that grew in the
coastal swamps and forests. These conifer trees produced resins that
were transformed into fossil amber through loss of volatile matter and
oxidation of the resin itself.

The coastal lowlands were periodically flooded by transgressions of
the sea, afterwards to fall dry again when the sea regressed. During
the periods when the sea transgressed these forested coastal lowlands,
the conifer trees and other vegetation died, and were substituted by
marine flora and fauna. Hence, the coexistence of the fossil remains
of both terrestrial and marine plants and animals in the form of
fossils in the Jarash area. Such changes in the environmental
conditions are believed to have occurred five times during the Lower
Cretaceous period.

Of a total number of Lebanese amber fragments submitted to the
British Museum (Natural History) by Professor Aftim Acra and his son
(well over 1000 pieces) there were 561 complete and exceedingly well
preserved insects, apart from the many more insect fractions included
in the specimens (heads, appendages, wings, etc.). Excluding such
insects that are recognizable as mites, spiders and pseudo-scorpions,
the ones studied in a more or less preliminary fashion are listed
below .

Order

Common Name

Number

Percentage

Importance of Findings

Diptera

Flies

213

37.8

Biting flies with piercing mouthparts (particularly Phlebotomus-sandflies) which are of importance in disease transmission. Such insects as Craneflies are destructive to plants

Lepidoptera

Moths

6

1.1

An indication of the presence of flowering plants and their evolution. Moths have biting mouthparts for chewing pollen, etc. The proboscis appears to be a later development. Micropterigid studied in detail (Whalley, Nature, 266:526, 1977)

Homoptera

Leafhoppers, aphids, etc.

64

11.4

Many species found. Will assist in the understanding of these groups.

Heteroptera

Plant Bugs and Assassin Bugs

4

0.7

The specimen which is providing information central to the relationship of two groups.

Coleoptera

Beetles

42

7.5

Include groups which are nowadays tree-borers (pine trees)

Orthoptera

Grasshoppers, Crickets

20

3.6

Only tiny insects found

Dictyoptera

Cockroaches

5

0.9

Highly modified wing venation even by comparison with recent species.

Thysanoptera

Thrips

34

6.1

Modern thrips are often plant pests

Neuroptera

Lace-wings, Ant Lions

5

0.9

Several interesting specimens of scientific value. One species with predatory forelegs (like Mantids). Include adults and larvae Berothidae.

Hymenoptera

Bees, Wasps, etc.

40

7.1

Mostly small, parasitic species of importance in relation to biological control of other species.

Psocoptera

27

4.8

Thysanura

11

2.0

Collembola

Springtails

6

1.1

Ephemeroptera

May-Flies

84

15

Aquatic insects, fragment of one insect, not positively identified

Diptera include the earliest acalyptrate and many
Nematocera. Amongst these are Phlebotomus (all males at present!) but
which Dr. D.J. lewis says are important in relation to the disease
transmission/continental drifts problem.

Homoptera include Cicadellidae and Fulgoridae, one of which
Dr. Fennah has determined almost to genus (Oliarus), pointing out that
the characters have remained virtually unchanged for over 100 million
years. Neuroptera are particularly interesting with Coniopterygids and
Beorthids. The latter is a rather rare tropical family. Species of
recent Berothidae have raptorial forelegs which show clearly in the
amber fossils

LEBANESE AMBER

Age: Lower Cretaceous. 100-130 million BP. Aptian or Neocomian age
not agreed currently but there are several deposits which may be of
either age (still over 100 million BP)

Quantity: We have over 1000 pieces which have yielded 561 complete
insects and many more (often recognisable) fragments. Prof. A.Acra and
F. Acra have a larger quantity available and know of many sites.

Quality: Insects, plants, arachnids. Gaseous, mineral and liquid
inclusions common* (Acra, personal comm.). Certainly our "sample" is a
very rich specimen. Many of the insects are perfectly preserved and
can be:

studied under high power in situ

embedded in Euparal when the amber is cleared and dissolved

embedded in plastic and machine polished to give brilliant
visibility

the fossil can be removed from the amber which can of course be
stereoscanned, sectioned, etc.

While I have seen many small inclusions, they have not been
studied. It is possible that protozoa, bacteria, diatoms (and perhaps
viruses?) are trapped in the amber and will be visible under the
electron microscope. Similarly, the botanical and the mineral/gas
inclusions need studying. The possibility of deriving more direct
information about the Lower Cretaceous environment is perhaps feasible
with this amber. I have made a preliminary infra-red spectroscopic
examination of the amber (after instruction by the Department of
Mineralogy). Further botanical and mineralogical advice on these
results are needed.